From Bubblegum to Sky
From Bubblegum to Sky is a music project by Mario Ishii Hernandez (* 1967 in San Antonio , Texas ).
Career
Hernandez is the son of a US officer of Mexican descent and a Japanese woman and grew up in Japan. He later went to school in California and started his first band called Teeny Records with his classmate Jamie McCormick . As Teeny Hi-Fi , they recorded the single Weekend Go in 1992 . Eventually the duo renamed themselves Ciao Bella and made a name for themselves with album 1 in 1997 . A few more joint recordings followed, then the two separated and McCormick went to New York and continued as a session musician.
Mario Hernandez then started his solo project From Bubblegum to Sky , where he is a singer and songwriter. On his first recordings he played most of the instruments himself and on his performances he used playback tracks and turned them into a multimedia show with image projections. His debut single was My Thousand Years with Robots in 1999 , followed by the first album Me and Amy and the Two French Boys , on which McCormick helped him with some recordings. They appeared on the Californian indie label Eenie Meenie. Musically, Hernandez is influenced by the music of the 70s and 80s and he alternates between the western pop of this time and the J-pop from his childhood.
After that, Hernandez released two more albums every four years, Nothing Sadder Than Lonely Queen (2004) and A Soft Kill (2008), which was released as a download album and as a special edition in vinyl with an attached t-shirt. In addition to the musical development, From Bubblegum to Sky also changed from a pure solo project to a larger line-up, in which Hernandez is supported by two other musicians.
Discography
Albums
- Me and Amy and the Two French Boys (2000)
- Nothing Sadder Than Lonely Queen (2004)
- A Soft Kill (2008)
Singles
- My Thousand Years with Robots (1999)
swell
- The Fab One. Sgt.Mario's Lonely One-Man Band by Glenn Donaldson, SF Weekly, January 10, 2001
- ↑ Nothing Sadder Than Lonely Queen , album review by Patrick Schabe, PopMatters, April 20, 2004
Web links
- Official website (English)
- official MySpace page (English)
- From Bubblegum to Sky on Allmusic (English)